Why Is My Recent Luck Bad? Yu Hexagram Top Six Says "Ming Yu" — Too Long a Smooth Spell Can Spell Big Trouble

Have you been having a really rough time lately?

Work isn’t going well, your love life is on the rocks, you can’t seem to hold onto money, and you’re feeling under the weather. Everything feels off, everyone rubs you the wrong way, and nothing you try works out.

You’re totally confused. Just a few years ago my luck was pretty good, you think. How did it suddenly get this bad?

You start wondering if you’ve offended the Tai Sui, if your feng shui is off, or if you’ve upset someone. You go around asking diviners for readings and hunting for ways to turn your luck around. But no matter what you try, nothing changes.

The top line of the Yu (Enthusiasm) hexagram says: 「冥豫，成，有渝，无咎。」 (Darkened enthusiasm; once the pattern is set, if there is change, there is no blame.)

Wen Laoshi says that when your luck suddenly takes a turn for the worse, more often than not it’s not bad luck at all. It’s that things were too easy, too comfortable, too indulgent for you before—and now the bills are coming due.

What Does "Darkened Enthusiasm" (冥豫) Mean?

The top line is the highest line of the Yu hexagram, marking its end point and its extreme.

Yu is the hexagram of ease and good fortune. When you reach the top line, ease has run its course, good times have peaked, and the sweet life has hit its limit.

Things reverse when they reach their extreme; joy turns to sorrow when pushed too far.

That’s exactly what’s happening with this top line—it’s gotten too comfortable, too smooth, too easy. How comfortable? So comfortable that it’s “darkened” (冥): its judgment is clouded, its mind is muddled, it can’t see reality clearly, and it’s blind to risks.

It’s sunk deep into this state of ease, living for pleasure and going through the motions without purpose, completely losing its sense of vigilance and awareness of danger.

This is what “darkened enthusiasm” (冥豫) means: muddled comfort, addictive indulgence, and unconscious self-indulgence.

What does “set” (成) mean? It means things have already come to this—what’s done is done, the die is cast.

You’ve indulged for this long, you’ve let yourself go for this long, you’ve been comfortable for this long. The bills you have to pay, the problems that will arise, the setbacks that are coming—they’re all on their way.

This isn’t meant to scare you. It’s just how things work. Prosperity is always followed by decline, extreme joy by sorrow, and long stretches of good fortune by setbacks.

But the Top Line Is Not a Dead End

That said, the top line isn’t a hopeless case, a total disaster, or a lost cause.

There’s still a turning point: “if there is change, there is no blame” (有渝，无咎).

What does that mean? It means you can change, you can turn things around, you can wake up from this state of indulgence. If you do, everything will be fine—there will be no misfortune, and you’ll dodge this bullet.

“Change” (渝) means to shift, to correct course, to wake up.

Climb out of your cozy bubble, step out of your comfort zone, pull yourself together, and regain your sense of urgency and drive. When you change, your luck changes; when you wake up, the pitfalls disappear.

That’s the most valuable part of this top line. It doesn’t just tell you “long good fortune leads to bad luck” and leave you to accept your fate. What it tells you is this: long good fortune can easily lead to bad luck, but if you take the initiative to change, you can avoid it.

Fate isn’t fixed—it can be changed. How? Through your own awareness, your own actions, and your own “change” (渝)—taking the initiative to shift course.

Why Your Luck Has Been Bad Lately

Let me tell you a story. A friend of mine rode an industry boom a few years back, made some money, and had a smooth career. Those years were great for him—he slacked off at work, went drinking after hours, played cards on weekends, and traveled on vacation. Study? No need, things are good right now. Save money? No need, I’ll make more next month.

He thought the good times would last forever.

Then the industry shifted, his company laid people off, and he got cut. He couldn’t find a good job; when he tried switching fields, he realized he had no useful skills; and his savings? There was barely anything left.

He was super anxious, complaining about his bad luck, the bad industry, and the terrible overall environment.

I told him it wasn’t bad luck—it was that things had been too easy for him before. When times were good, he got cocky, he got lazy, he stopped learning, he stopped building up his skills, and he thought the good times would never end. So when the good fortune ran out, he couldn’t handle it.

It’s not that your luck got worse—it’s that you stopped keeping up.

When a lot of people hit a streak of bad luck, their first reaction is to look for external causes: did I offend the Tai Sui? Is my feng shui off? Do I need to turn my luck around? But take a step back and look: what were you doing during those good years before?

Did you get cocky? Did you get lazy? Did you let yourself go? Did you fail to build up any real, lasting skills?

Only when you find the root cause will you know what to fix.

“How Can This Last?” — Good Fortune Never Lasts Forever

The Xiang Commentary (象传) says: 「冥豫在上，何可长也？」 (Darkened enthusiasm at the top—how can this last?)

Indulging in muddled comfort while sitting at the peak of good fortune—how could that possibly last?

Good times never last forever. That’s just how things work; it’s not personal. The sun starts to set once it reaches its highest point; the moon starts to wane once it’s full; life starts to get harder once it’s at its most comfortable.

This is the way of heaven—no one can escape it.

But here’s the difference: some people stay vigilant, prepare, and build up their resources during good times, so they can hold on and keep moving forward when the tide turns. Others get cocky, act recklessly, and indulge themselves during good times, so they crash hard as soon as the good fortune ends.

Which one are you?

If you always hit a slump after every stretch of good luck, what does that mean? It means you weren’t doing the right things during the good times—you were just enjoying yourself, indulging, stuck in “darkened enthusiasm.” You used up all the good fortune you’d built up during those easy years.

How do you change it? Next time things are going well, don’t just focus on being comfortable. Stay alert, build up your skills, learn something new, save some money, and give yourself a safety net.

The more you build up during good times, the easier hard times will be. If you don’t get cocky, don’t act recklessly, and don’t indulge during good times, you won’t crash as hard when things get tough.

Good times are when you need to be the most vigilant, because that’s when you build up your reserves. Build up enough reserves, and you’ll make it through the winter.

What to Do When Your Luck Is Bad: Three Words — Change, No Blame

At this point, the answer is pretty clear. What do you do when your luck is bad lately?

Don’t go chasing random luck fixes, don’t jump from one trend to another, don’t scare yourself. Look back: were things too easy, too comfortable, too indulgent before? If yes, then that’s it—that’s the reason.

Once you find the cause, fix it. How? Three steps.

Step one: accept where you are. Stop thinking “I used to be good at this” or “my luck has always been great.” What worked before doesn’t mean it works now; what was good before doesn’t mean it’ll stay good. First, admit it: right now, my luck is bad, things aren’t going well, and there are problems.

Only when you accept it can you calm down and figure out a solution.

Step two: find the cause. Don’t blame your luck, don’t blame other people, don’t make excuses. Look back at the past few years: where did I slack off? Where did I let myself go? Where did I get cocky?

Once you find the cause, you’ll know what you need to work on.

Step three: take action. Don’t sit around waiting for your luck to turn around, don’t wait for someone to save you. Get moving—study if you need to study, work if you need to work, adjust if you need to adjust, fix your weak spots if you need to fix them.

As soon as you start moving, your luck starts to turn.

You Make Your Own Luck

Remember what Wen Laoshi says.

Luck isn’t something that falls from the sky. It’s something you build step by step, every day. If you make the right choices, your luck will naturally be good; if you go off track, your luck will naturally be bad. Fix your choices, and your luck will come back.

When times are good, don’t get cocky, don’t act recklessly, don’t indulge. Stay alert, build up your skills, and give yourself a safety net. That way, when hard times come, you’ll be able to hold on and get through it.

「有渝，无咎。」 — If you can change, there is no blame.

The moment you wake up and take the initiative to change, that’s when your luck starts heading in a better direction.